WASHINGTON, May 3 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – In the 1990 film Presumed Innocent, Harrison Ford’s character is falsely accused of killing his mistress and brought before a jury to stand trial for murder. Now, Ford is teaming up with
the American Bar Association to promote jury duty during National Juror
Appreciation Week, May 2-6, 2005, by lending his image to a national
advertising campaign designed to encourage Americans to report for jury duty
when called.
The centerpiece of the campaign is an advertisement featuring Ford that
says, “In real life, the jury decides the ending. Answer the call to jury
service. Harrison Ford did.” The ad will appear in airports in more than a
dozen major metropolitan areas across the country during National Juror
Appreciation Week, May 2-6, as part of a larger effort to educate the public
about jury duty.
“I am delighted that Mr. Ford has lent his support to this important
cause,” said ABA President Robert Grey Jr. “Together, I hope we can get the
word out and help find a way to increase the percentage of people who view
jury duty as a high calling of citizenship, and therefore increase the number
of people who report when summoned.”
Upon becoming ABA president in August 2004, Grey launched the American
Jury Initiative, an effort to strengthen the jury as one of America’s most
important democratic institutions and enhance public understanding of its
vital role in our system of law and government. As part of that effort, Grey
appointed the 21-member ABA Commission on the American Jury and charged it
with outreach to the public, the legal profession, and the courts. The
Commission’s honorary chair is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
“National Juror Appreciation Week is an important celebration of the role
of juries in our great democracy and an urgent call to action,” said Grey.
“If we are to encourage more Americans to answer the call to service, we must
restore this great institution to its rightful place in our society. We must
make it easier for them to report for jury duty, make it more comfortable when
they are there. For those selected, we must do whatever is required to help
them successfully deliberate and reach fair verdicts.”
For more information on National Juror Appreciation Week, visit
http://www.abanet.org/jury/jurorkit.html. For a digital image of the
advertisement featuring Harrison Ford, visit
http://www.abavideonews.org/ABA301/index.htm.
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the
largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the
national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the
administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in
their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and
works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the
rule of law in a democratic society.
